Free Flick of the Day: The End of the Affair

In 1951, Graham Greene's* The End of the Affair was published. Inspired by his own affair with Lady Catherine Walston, the novel was set in post-World War II London, and followed a writer whose affair with a woman is rekindled when her husband makes his acquaintance a few years later. Their affair had ended abruptly, and he had never gotten the answer why. The novel has all the romantic trappings, but with Greene's pen and the story's links to reality, Affair reads more like a character study revolving around love than an all-out romantic drama.

The first film was made shortly after the book's release -- the 1955 Edward Dmytryk film starring Deborah Kerr, Van Johnson, Peter Cushing, and John Mills. Half a century later, Neil Jordan decided to revisit the story with Ralph Fiennes, Julianne Moore, and Stephen Rea in 1999. Fiennes played Bendrix, the writer, Moore was his once-mistress, and Rea played the husband. Moore received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, while Roger Pratt earned a nod for Best Cinematography. And now, dun dun dun, you can check out the Academy Award-nominated adaptation for free as part of our Free Flick of the Day series.